A forensic audit into spending at the Toronto District School Board could include investigating emails and other communications.

An audit of the Toronto District School Board will cost taxpayers up to $450,000 and could include an investigation into emails and other communications, board and ministry officials say.

Board chair Chris Bolton said that because it’s a forensic audit, “the one thing that’s different ... is that it also has the option to look at other things” such as emails and instant messaging.

He said he’s not sure what the audit will uncover, given that previous audits have uncovered no wrongdoing.

“There have obviously been some comments made and assertions made, but to my knowledge, none of them have been verified by any evidence,” he said.

The board’s director of education requested the province’s help after concerns were raised about program spending and spending in the office of the director from September 2009 until now, among other issues.

Elizabeth Moyer, chair of the board’s audit committee, has confirmed she also wrote her own letter to Minister of Education Liz Sandals outlining similar concerns.

The province has hired Ernst & Young LLP to look at all issues raised, including financial reporting and salary increases for senior staff.

A spokesperson for Sandals said the value of the contract with Ernst & Young will depend on the number of hours worked, but it has a limit of $450,000.

Meanwhile, amid revelations that Moyer’s two teenage daughters were hired last summer for jobs intended for inner-city teens — under a program that will be investigated by auditors — Bolton said it is up to her constituents to decide how they feel about it.

Moyer said the children of board staff had also been hired for Focus on Youth. Bolton said he’s been clear with staff that the program is for at-risk teens only.

“It originated from the (Jordan) Manners murder,” he said, and is meant to provide space to community agencies, programming for needy kids, as well as jobs for inner-city teens.

He said he’s troubled by “any suspicions or any thoughts of basically what I would call nepotism.”

Former chair Bruce Davis, who helped set up Focus on Youth, said he didn’t know of any individual cases where the children of staff or trustees were hired when he was at the board, but worried it could affect its future.

“It may be the best program ever done in the school board,” he said.

However, he acknowledged that nepotism is a wider problem at the board, and that he tried to put an end to it when he was chair.

“Ninety-five per cent of school board hiring is who you know. When you want to become a teacher, it’s who you know. When you want to get a job as a caretaker, it’s who you know. This isn’t just one summer program, it is part of the culture, and it is very, very difficult to change that culture.”

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